Saturday, 30 June 2012

One grey June day, we were visiting my mother-in-law in Bath, and decided to take her for a trip out into the surrounding countryside. We always like to use our English Heritage membership to take in a castle or two, and this looked like a fine example not too far away.

We don't always take advantage of the audio tours at these sites (even though it's included with the ticket), but for some reason we did this time, and it was a great way to get a feel for the things which had happened here. And there was certainly some gruesome history, from the woman who murdered her husband to the man who locked his wife in the tower (not a lot of happy marriages in this story).

An artist's impression of how it would have looked before it was ruined:

While the castle itself was lovely, the best-preserved and most interesting part was the church on site, with ancient wall paintings, extravagant tombs, and a crypt with lead coffins. I really thought I was going to be sick when the audio guide said that someone had stuck a stick into one of the lead coffins to taste the embalming fluid!

What a beautiful church. Some people are very strange - imagine eating embalming fluid. There was an Oxford don in the last century who particularly liked eating strange creatures - slugs, ants, cockroaches, etc.

I don't think there were very many happy marriages in those days, probably because the rich peoples' marriages were always arranged entirely for financial reasons, I suppose.

I know castle very well! I used to play with motorbikes in the fields at the bottom of the hill through the 80's. The British Motocross GP was held there through that time. Now a big steel bar gate blocks access and keep the travellers out! The pub further up the road is pretty good too.

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